Area Studies (Latin America) (Research)

The information provided on this page was correct at the time of publication (November 2025). For complete and up-to-date information about this course, please visit the relevant University of Oxford course page via www.graduate.ox.ac.uk/ucas.

The DPhil in Area Studies (Latin America) is a research-based course exploring Latin America through interdisciplinary approaches, covering politics, economics, sociology, religion, and international relations.

The course offers the opportunity to undertake a doctoral project dedicated to the study of a specific country or region, or else to compare more than one region, using social science approaches whilst also generating theories and propositions that are of value across regions.

Looking beyond the big picture of globalisation and development, researchers at the Oxford School of Global and Area Studies (OSGA) examine the interplay between the local, the national, the regional, and the global to offer a better understanding of the contemporary world. Oxford’s Area Studies department is consistently ranked amongst the top echelon and has been recently ranked by QS University Rankings as first in the world.

As a DPhil student, you will have access to outstanding research projects, seminar series, workshops and conferences and will have the chance to develop your work alongside academic staff who are experts in their fields. You will apply for admission to one of seven streams, which each have a distinct country or region of focus. This page describes the Latin America stream of the course.

As a student of the Latin America stream of this course, your research will usually be undertaken in collaboration with the school’s Latin American Centre (LAC).

During the first year of the course, as a full-time student, you will focus on developing your research questions, conceptual framework and methodological approaches for your thesis. You will participate in the first-year DPhil seminar series, the Global and Area Studies programme's Competing Approaches to Area Studies course, and you will have the opportunity to attend other courses offered by the school as identified in your Training Needs Analysis. Your Training Needs Analysis will be discussed with your supervisor and reviewed on a regular basis. These requirements will be fulfilled over the first two years if you are studying part-time.

In your second year, or third and fourth years for part-time students, you will continue to implement your research plan through theoretical engagement and/or fieldwork, data collection and analysis. If you intend to undertake fieldwork as part of your research, you will be expected to attend a fieldwork safety course available through the Social Sciences Division.

During the third year for full-time students, or fifth and sixth years for part-time students, you will participate in at least one conference, in the UK or internationally, presenting your work to a non- specialist audience, and to submit materials for Confirmation of Status as a doctoral researcher, as well as working towards the completion of your thesis.

The course aims to empower you to achieve the following learning outcomes:

• develop research skills in ways that are relevant to the study of areas and regions;

• build an interdisciplinary and/or comparative understanding of different regions;

• undertake original research which makes a significant contribution to the literature;

• communicate research to non-academic audiences in ways that ensure real-world impact; and

• present a lucid and scholarly thesis for examination.